easy vegetarian cooking for everyone, with a few ideas mixed in.

Curry Sweet Potato Burgers

Hope you are enjoying Spring! Although things have been a bit busy at work, we have been finding ways to garden and enjoy the Spring weather. Serafina helped me put in our lettuces, herbs, and our early batch of tomatoes. As she gets older, she seems to love the dirt and helping more. A definite bonus. Spring also brings easy meals filled with chopped veggies. Toddlers can love veggies, but it helps to have them fresh and tasty. Luckily, after a long day, this quick meal can satiate Serafina and my concerns over a balanced vegetarian diet. This is fast food in our house:

She followed with a yogurt and banana. However, if I put those on the plate in the beginning, there would be no veggies consumed.

One hallmark of the coming Spring can be firing up the grill. I have spent a good amount of time trying different packaged veggie burgers, but we decided to try making our own with sweet potatoes the other weekend.

With some forethought, this veggie burger can be a simple dish for dinner. We made them the day before, then froze them to help them maintain their shape. The curry may appear to be an unusual addition, but I find that it can be the perfect match with the blander flavors of beans and potatoes. Also, curry is mild enough that children usually love it. In fact, I use recipes like this and my Curry Egg Salad to broaden Serafina’s tastes. Also, the pearled couscous in the photo was a perfect healthy compliment to the burgers. Just add garbanzo beans, frozen veggie mix, and olive oil.

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Slather the sweet potatoes chunks in olive oil and roast for 40 minutes. Remove and let the potatoes cool a tad.

2. When cooler, add in the beans, tahini and syrup. Mash the ingredients together.

3. Once the majority of the beans are mashed, add the remaining ingredients. Stir together so they mix evenly. Add more or less breadcrumbs based on how dry your mixture is. Add more syrup if it seems to be drying.

4. Take a 1/3 cup of mixture and shape into a round burger shape. Place on freezer paper and layer in a freezer safe container. Place burgers in the freezer for at least 24 hours.

5. When ready, defrost the burgers. We cooked the burgers on our Cuisinart panini press, but they seemed to hold together enough that I might trust them on a grill.